Cali Kid Corals

Spoon v2.0 - IM Nuvo 16 + Kessil + Apex

Spoon said:
Anyone else do it like this?
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I usually change 4 G. at a time with this method.
For small tanks I put new water in a measured/marked bucket and heat it. To get it into the tanks I pump it from floor level to the tank using a length of vinyl tubing and a couple of insert 'ells' to make it hook over tank. A MaxiJet 1200 takes care of it and I don't have to lift the bucket. :)

For the big tank I pump the old water out using a tee off the return. I use a 'Python' hose to an outdoor sink. To get new water in I pump from the mix container (32 G. Brute) to the tank using the same Python. Takes me about 20 minutes to change 12 G. (10%) including clean up. All I have to move/carry is the Python. :)
 
^^Water change made easy! Btw I saw your post on Neptune forums. ;)

tr1gger said:
With my old pico I used 2 - 1 gallon jugs and filled them with water and poured them into an empty salt bucket and marked the bucket is several spots. I did that for 2 buckets, 1 for mixing water and one for pulling old water out. This gave me the exact water change I needed.

Granted, I was doing water changes every 2-3 days just to keep things spot on in such a small environment but this method may help you out ;) No matter the case, its still an easy water change :)
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Nailed it! I will do this as well. Thanks! ;)
 
We have about the same sizes volume tank and I also change about 2-3 gals a week. I find it easier to drain the water in my bucket with tick marks than to unravel a long hose to my bathroom. By the time I do that, I've already drained 2 gals from the tank. I also use a large diameter hose for faster drains. Plus I hate having stagnant salt water in my hose which sometimes spills all over the floor.

Btw tank is looking solid! Such a clean set up. Definitely some thought put into it!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.
 
Marc said:
I find it easier to drain the water in my bucket with tick marks than to unravel a long hose to my bathroom. By the time I do that, I've already drained 2 gals from the tank. I also use a large diameter hose for faster drains. Plus I hate having stagnant salt water in my hose which sometimes spills all over the floor.

Btw tank is looking solid! Such a clean set up. Definitely some thought put into it!
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Thanks for the nice words! A lot more thought than what went into my very first setup 13 years ago I will tell you that much.

I think you make perfect sense Marc. I mean, two gallons to carry 13' to the bathroom I think is much less effort then rolling out a damp hose, getting leftover droppings on the carpet, yada yada.
 
Playing around with the MP10 trying to make waves. I managed to get a tiny one going. Let's see if this video works...

 
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Also, it was 100 degrees today. So I came home, and opened up one of these. Very refreshing! And the Giants won wewt!

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Thanks @tygunn!

So I Finally broke out the camera. ;) The chalice was given to me by @dswong01, he was very nice. I met up with him to give him the extra rock I had, he's going to give it to his sister who is starting a tank soon. He had this chalice for me and I told him it wasn't necessary, but he insisted. Thanks @dswong01!


Pumpkin Patch Chalice
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Electric Blue Hermit Crab
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Nice shots! What kind of camera are you using to take the pics? I find I have to turn off the blue LEDs in my setup to take any pics with my cameraphone. I haven't tried much with the DSLR yet, but I know its always a pain to adjust the colors for LED. Maybe it's just my lights. :)
 
Thanks @Devon and @tygunn! We will see how this chalice works out. I wasn't 100% ready in my mind to take on a coral at the time I received it, but it appears to be fully inflated and tentacles extended surround the eyes. It's been almost a week since he's been in here. I am very confident now, and my parameters are all looking great. I'm just monitoring and logging to make sure everything is as stable as it should be.

Any chalice tips? I have frozen mysis that I will attempt to feed. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

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I wish I had the money for a really good DSLR setup. Hopefully in the next year or so. But for the past 3 or 4 years I've been using Canon G-Series cameras.

I currently have a Canon G15 and love it. :beer:
 
Bad crab?

Alright so my chalice the other day, found it on the sandbed about 3" away from where it was supposed to be. About three times now I've found my Sunset Monti plug shifted, not toppled over, luckily.

This morning I found my rock of bonus Mohawk zoas tossed off the rock and onto the sandbed.

Dammit. It's either my Electric Blue hermit crab, or my trio of Nassarius snails. What do you guys think? I'm pondering removal of the hermit already. :(

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I have an update, and I took pics. Got the computer back last night too and was going to post, but looks like my lens was dirty. So I will snap a few pics tonight to show off the generosity our fellow reefers have shown me.
 
Devon said:
Why not glue your frags to the rocks?
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Pfft. Why didn't I think of that?

Ok I'll glue them. Any drawbacks you can think of to gluing them? I want to frag in the future obviously, and I really don't want to remove an entire boulder to do so. Admittedly I will have to be educated on the art of fragging. But I will gladly glue them to the rocks if I can frag underwater successfully.
 
The ease of fragging really depends on the coral. The sunset Monti is an encrusting coral so it my be tuff. I've never personally fragged and encrusting Monti. Soft coral can be very simple. I'm still learning myself. But I'm sure lots of people on this forum can chime in with knowledge of fragging.
 
Update - 5/22/14

Here are some iPhone pics..I'll try my best to take real pics later, I've just been too busy to get setup with the camera.

I'll also post my parameters tonight. I've been steadily trying to raise my alkalinity and calcium levels over the past week or so dosing B-Ionic, it's getting there nicely it seems!

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Got Glue?

CorAffix. I hate it. It worked though, and I got my pieces attached where I wanted them. I got tired of my crab knocking them over lol, poor guy doesn't know how big his shell is.

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One of my X-Games Nassarius Snails slithered out of my tank and went skydiving, noticed the shell on the carpet the other day. That will work out though because I may need to remove them all, as I hear they tend to attack the feet of clams, and I want to pick up a Crocea or Maxima here in the coming weeks. Anyone know anything about that?


Giving Thanks

I want to publicly thank @neuro and @Devon for graciously offering DBTC frags to me that you can see displayed in my updated FTS above. I cannot wait for these babies to grow and I'm excited for opportunities to post my own frags for DBTC adventures! Montipora is my favorite coral ever, right? So I think I may be creating a Montipora dominant nano. ;)

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@blueprintguy has also offered a piece to me but I haven't yet the chance to pick it up. Hopefully soon, and I will post pics when I do! And @Navdeep was kind enough to offer me a two-head plug of beautiful hammer that was cleaned and saved from certain death.

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